NJ Gay Marriage Battle Back In Court

From Philly.com:

N.J. – The gay couples who sued New Jersey for the right to marry once before are heading back to court.

Six couples plan to file a motion Thursday claiming that the state is still discriminating against them even though it offers civil unions to same-sex couples.

A suit from the couples, plus one other, resulted in a 2006 state Supreme Court decision that came one vote short of requiring the state to legalize gay matrimony then.

After an effort to get lawmakers to legalize it fizzled out this year, the couples and lawyers from Lambda Legal are heading back to court.

The seventh couple isn’t part of the motion because one of the partners died.

Opponents say there’s no constitutional right for gay couples to wed.

Gay Marriage Survives In New Hampshire

NH Rep Al Baldasaro (R) Says homosexuals can change their preference any time.

Concord NH – Supporters of the state’s new same sex marriage law in New Hampshire came out victorious over opponents who attempted to repeal the human-rights law this week. The NH legislature voted this week on a bill to amend the state constitution and to redefine  marriage back as only between a man and a woman.

Extremist Republicans in the house were sorely disappointed after only a half-hour of debate their bill was defeated, but that doesn’t mean they held back any punches. Virtually every previously-proven-false stereotype about gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people were pulled out in a last-ditch effort by legislators to destroy the state’s new found equality. Rep. John Cebrowski (R) said that, “The vast majority of adults out there know marriage is between man and women. To engage in this flight of imagination … with adults is downright cruel. It’s cruel and I don’t like it.” He also made the comparison of same sex couples getting married as being similar to a child playing Star Wars.

But the mentally-challenged dogma didn’t stop there. Representative Jordan Ulery claimed that, “This is absolutely not an issue of equal rights. This is a question of being open to procreation. This is an issue of natural law,” and Representative Al Baldasaro stated, “Homosexuals can change their sexual preference at any time.”

Fortunately wiser heads prevailed this time. Rep Robert Thompson, an out-and-proud gay man who married his husband under the state’s new law said, “We already have loving, committed same-sex marriage couples in New Hampshire. There has been no detrimental impact to anyone,” adding a personal note by asking his colleagues, “How has my marriage impacted upon your marriage, or how has it diminished the value of your marriage?”

In the end, the homophobic and bigoted bills stood almost no chance and were defeated 210-109.

For more of the craziness of Republicans in New Hampshire watch the video below. “No Disrespect!”

NOM Doesn’t Care Judge Is Gay, But It’s Wrong

NOM's infamously bigoted commercial "Storm Coming"

In an update to Sunday’s story about Prop 8 Trial Judge Vaughn Walker being gay, NOM  (people from the “storm is coming” commercial) has released a statement that it doesn’t matter he’s gay.. he’s just incredibly biased.

While both official sides in the Prop 8 Trial case are both claiming that they don’t care about the orientation of Judge Walker and that it has not impacted the case, the far right asshats are flying in with their nonsensical rhetoric. NOM (LDS Inc. controlled National Organization for Marriage) released a statement saying, “We have no idea whether the report [of Walker’s orientation] is true or not. But we do know one really big important fact about Judge Walker: He’s been an amazingly biased and one-sided force throughout this trial, far more akin to an activist than a neutral referee. That’s no secret at all”

Queerty has some opinions on that, saying “..this move is true to form for the National Organization for Marriage.. It’s the “smiling bigot” phenomenon, where religious beliefs are slyly substituted for important secular responsibilities like “family and children,” hoping nobody notices. It’s imperative for NOM, and the defendants in Perry, to put distance between their goal (banning gay marriage) and their reasoning for it (it goes against religious teachings), because courts regularly shoot down arguments tied to the cross. And Brown’s statement repeats NOM’s earlier positions: They don’t have anything wrong with gay people, they just don’t want them screwing with their sacred institution.”

Of course these days anything NOM says is almost inconsequential as they’re under federal investigation for their ties to the Mormon Church and their direct and illegal involvement in the passage of Maine’s Anti-Gay Marriage law in 2009.

Gay Marriage Coming For Rhode Island?

R.I – Marriage Equality Rhode Island has received pledges from all Democratic and Independant Governor hopefuls that they will support and fight for Gay Marriage.. no word yet from Republican hopefuls of course.

Being the 2nd to last New England state to not allow same-sex unions (Maine), Rhode Island has been pushing hard not to be left out of the human-rights battle. And now Marriage Equality Rhode Island has released that Attorney General Patrick Lynch and General Treasurer Frank Caprio (Democrats), and former Sen. Lincoln Chafee (Independent) have all signed on with support. They are expected to make their own announcements about their pro-LGBT views on March 3rd.

Rhode Island has struggled with this issue, as current Governor Carcieri has been a major opponent of human-rights. However Carcieri has now run out his time and won’t be able to run again.

Portugal To Legalize Gay Marriage

This past Friday, the Portugal parliament passed a bill which would legalize same-sex marriage in the country. Heavy protest broke out in the country, which is predominantly Catholic and anger was stoked by the local Bishop, Dom Jose Policarpo who said in a statement to the AP, “Millenary culture deems marriage as a contract between a man and a woman. Changing this understanding of what is a family can have extremely grave consequences in the future.”

Members of the Portugal LGBT Community Celebrate The Parliament's Decision

The bill currently would provide the local LGBT community with all benefits and protections as heterosexual marriages, with the exception of adoption which would remain illegal for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals.

The final step in the process is a ratification by the conservative President Anibal Cavaco Silva. If and when the President approves this bill, Portugal will be join those countries more enlightened than the world’s strongest super-power, the United States. Currently, Spain, Belgiam, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, South Africa and Canada are the only countries to fully understand human decency.

Talking to Senator Buttars

Senator Chris Buttars

Eric Ethington and Elaine Ball

Some of you may know that I am the founder of the group PRIDE In Your Community, a LGBTQ and ally group that performs community service projects in an attempt to bridge the gap between the LGBTQ community and the rest of Utah. This past Saturday, Jan 17th, we held our most recent service event, delivering home-made pumpkin bread to legislators and their neighbors while promoting Equality Utah’s Common Ground Initiative.

Erring perhaps on the side of gusto, we decided to start with the neighborhood of none other than Senator Chris Buttars. We arrived at about 11am, and wanting to visit the Senator first, knocked on his door immediately. Imagine our disappointment, when no one answered the door! But soon after, while we were preparing to start knocking on doors, the Senator pulled up with his groceries in the trunk. We approached him on his driveway as he was unloading, and asked if we could speak to him about the local gay issues.

Mr. Buttars invited us into his study, and there gave us about an hour o uninterrupted time with him. Elaine and I had discussed this previously, and had decided that the best approach would be to take a humanistic approach, rather than legal or emotional. We shared with him the importance of these issues to us. For me in particular, I tend to focus the most heavily on the workplace and housing protections. Not enough people are aware that in Utah it is completely legal to fire someone, or evict them from their homes for no other reason than their sexual orientation. And as someone who has been both fired and evicted for that reason (as well as I work in Provo currently) they’re issues I am constantly worried about.

Senator Buttars was actually very receptive to the message, and expressed a great deal of empathy for those issues, claiming to frown on that type of discrimination.

One thing that enormously struck me during our conversation however, was how closely even those bills are linked in perhaps many legislator’s minds with same-sex marriage. I think this is a major road-block that needs to be taken care of in Utah in order to get any of these bills passed. Everyone needs to understand exactly what these bills are, and what they are not!

After speaking with Senator Buttars, we delivered our pumpkin bread and message to about 40 of his closest neighbors. Surprise surprise again, when 90% of them were incredibly receptive and supportive of these rights!

We were walking on air at this point, so we decided to drive down to Draper, and talk to Rep. Greg Hughes. Mr. Hughes was just as receptive as the Senator, and took many of the same stances, reaffirming to us the need for greater education and awareness in “straight” Utah.

I truly believe that these types of events will make a difference. Senator Buttars (in all likelihood) isn’t going to immediately change his stance on these civil rights issues, however if we keep going, and we talk to more and more people, the less and less people will perceive us as some evil entity, and more as human individuals.

For the article in the trib about this event, please see http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11506991

Intensive Look at the Debate Over LDS Prop 8 Involvement

I found this story today about the LDS church’s financial involvement in Prop 8, it’s extremely well done.

Maine Joins the Fight For Equality

Just one month after gay-rights advocates announced plans for all of New England to have Gay Marriage on the books by 2012, Maine has joined the long list of states with Same-Sex Marriage bills coming up for votes.

Senator Dennis Damon proposed the new bill, saying that after watching the results of [Maine’s] domestic registry, “it is obvious that more is needed,” adding that “it’s long overdue.” Currently, Maine is facing an enormous budget deficit, and opponents are questioning the timing, asking “why are they pushing this now?” Senator Damon’s reply has been, “Currently there is discrimination. Heterosexual couples who have decided to spend their lives together are treated differently than same-sex couples who have that same commitment to each other. I don’t see the fairness of that. I don’t see the need for that, and this bill will put an end to that.”

Opponents, of course, are lining up quickly against the new bill, spearheaded by Republican Rep. John Tardy; this despite a study by the University of Mass that estimates that over the next 3 years, about 33,000 couples will travel to Massachusetts to get married, resulting in 330 jobs and $111 million added to the state’s economy. Imagine what that would do for Maine’s spiraling economy!

Good luck Maine!

Utah Gay Rally held at Delicate Arch

Congrats to “Utahns For Marriage Equality” for their successful rally at Delicate Arch in behalf of the Common Grounds Initiative! Full story and video are at:

http://www.myfoxutah.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=8229701&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1

It’s……..Scary

As many of you may be aware, I signed up about a month ago to receive the American Family Association’s email newsletter for ideas on articles. Below is a copy of today’s newsletter.  – Eric
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PepsiCo gives $1,000,000 to help promote the gay agenda

Company forces employees to attend sexual orientation classes

January 8, 2009

Dear E,

PepsiCo has refused a request by AFA to remain neutral in the culture war. The company indicated that it will continue major financial support of homosexual organizations. AFA wrote Pepsi two times (on October 14 and October 29) requesting a meeting to discuss Pepsi’s neutrality in the culture war.

On November 17, AFA received a condescending (dated Nov. 7) from Paul Boykas, director, public policy, in which he refused to address Pepsi’s support of the homosexual agenda.

In the last two years, Pepsi has given $500,000 to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and $500,000 to the Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). The $1,000,000 was to be used to help promote homosexuality in the workplace. Pepsi refuses to give money to any pro-family organization that opposes the homosexual agenda. Plus, every homosexual organization we know of is overwhelmingly pro-abortion.

Both HRC and PFLAG supported efforts in California to defeat Proposition 8 which defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. HRC, the homosexual group financially supported by Pepsi, gave $2.3 million to defeat Prop 8.
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Sounds like Pepsi really sent a bad letter right? Well below is a copy of both AFA’s first letter to Pepsi, and the letter Pepsi sent in response. How much twisting of the truth do you think this “Family Oriented” organization is doing?  -Eric
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Letter to PepsiCo Chairman Indra K. Nooyi from Donald E. Wildmon (October 14, 2008):

Recently we noticed that PepsiCo gave a $500,000 donation to Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.  We were indeed surprised by PepsiCo’s support of the homosexual group.  It would appear to us that PepsiCo would not involve itself in a political and culture war, especially supporting an organization seeking to redefine marriage and family.

We ask PepsiCo to remain neutral in this culture war, neither supporting nor opposing the homosexual agenda.

We would like to discuss this matter with PepsiCo.  Would you have a representative of PepsiCo contact us?

 

Response from Paul Boykas, director, public policy to Donald  E. Wildmon (November 18, 2008):

I’m responding to your letter to our Chairman. In 2008, the PepsiCo Foundation awarded a grant to Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays to support a national program specifically designed for workplace environments.

The initiative seeks to promote further understanding and equality in the places where people spend much of their time at work.

Among the values promoted by the PepsiCo Foundation is ensuring a work environment that is respectful and where associates are valued for their contributions.  I hope this helps  clarify this grant by the PepsiCo Foundation.
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Copies of both letters came from AFA’s website.